What Alchemy Can't Do
by Libra Sorceress
Summary: Please, no. "Geez, lighten up," Winry moaned. "The way you look, you'd think you were the one dying." "It's not too late. There's something we can do, there must be... alchemy-" "God, Ed, I'm dying here! Please just forget about your precious alchemy!"


*Please read this listening to Hear You Me by Jimmy Eat World. Not sure how well it fits, but the tone seems to fit. I don't know. It just seems right*

"No," he whispered, over and over again. Like saying it could make it not come true. "No, no, no, no, no…"

The girl laying in his arms smiled at him weakly. "With the way you're acting, you'd think I had smashed your head in for breaking my automail again."

The stricken look in his eyes was all the response she needed.

"Ok, maybe that was a bad joke," she murmured, and coughed. A thick gurgling sound echoed around the empty room, and Winry gasped, struggling to move, to remove the liquid from her lungs.

Ed lifted her with his gentle arm, his arm made from flesh and bone. She strained upwards, only causing more of the liquid to spurt from between her lips.

Using the sleeve of his red jacket, Ed slowly wiped away what had gathered around her mouth. Red, so the stain wouldn't show.

"Why?" he asked her, his voice stiff with muted suffering.

"Why what?" she asked him, her eyes still sparkling. Her sapphire eyes. They weren't dim yet.

"Why didn't you wait for me?"

"Would it have made any difference?"

No, it wouldn't have done, and he knew it. It was all his fault. All, all his fault. He should have thought, he should have known, he should have been there. He should have been able to protect her. He should, he should, he should. They were all just words now. It made no difference. His regrets weren't going to stop anything.

His wishes weren't enough to hold onto the fragile girl in his arms.

His guilt wasn't going to save the girl with the lemon-yellow hair.

His shame wasn't going to keep Winry alive.

It was finally over. Kimbly was dead, and with him, the heavy cloud that had hung over Ed and Al.

But it had come at a price.

Because Kimbly had known. Kimbly had known that Ed and Al would kill him. So he put something in motion, a long time ago, to ensure their cooperation… and their punishment. A drug – tiny, harmless – had been in Winry's drink every morning. A poison. And the antidote had been administered every night. And by the time Ed and Al had finally removed him… it had been too late. Even if they knew what the antidote was, the damage done to Winry was too great.

But Winry said nothing. Even if she felt the effects of Kimbly's last curse destroying her from the inside, she didn't tell them. She knew there was no hope, if she knew anything at all. And she hadn't told them before they went off, on yet another journey for the Philosopher's Stone. And she…. She was almost dead by the time they had returned.

And Ed could do nothing but watch her die.

Nothing.

"Geez, lighten up," Winry moaned. "The way you look, you'd think you were the one dying."

He couldn't crack a smile.

"Don't talk like that," he whispered to her, his voice desperate, pleading. "It's not too late. There's something we can do, there must be… alchemy-"

"God, Ed, I'm dying here! Could you please just forget about your precious alchemy? Just once?"

"_But I have to save you!"_

The words came out louder than he had intended. He looked at her, and, for the first time, saw the light in her eyes beginning to dim.

An icy cold hand gripped her heart.

No.

It was too soon.

"No," his voice was strangled. "Winry, please! You have to wait – I need you to wait! You can't die on me, you just can't! You can't leave!"

"You still have Al," Winry murmured, her voice tired. "I hope you find the Stone. I hope you get Al's body back, and your arm and leg. Hell, it had better be fast – what will you do without my 24/7 automail service?"

"How can you be so light about this?!"

"Do I have a choice?"

Her words stopped his objections. He looked into her gentle face, drinking in every feature, trying to remember everything he had ever seen written there.

"No, Winry," Ed choked out. For the first time, he felt tears prick his eyelids. But he didn't let her go, not even to scrub away the liquid now flowing freely down his face. "You have an automail shop, remember? What would Granny Pinako do without you? A-and what about Den? Who's gonna feed him chicken bits under the table when she thinks no one is watching?"

"You knew about that?" she asked, a smile in her voice.

"We all knew about that," he said softly. "You're a crap liar. And you were hardly subtle."

"True," she smiled, and struggled to rise again. She was stopped by another bout of coughing.

"Ed," she whispered huskily. "Ed, I'm tired. I want to sleep."

"No, please, no!" he sobbed. "You can't go! We all need you! I need you, Winry!"

"No, you don't," she sighed. "Another mechanic would do just fine. I was only joking earlier."

Her words hit him. Hard.

"That's not why I need you, Winry," he told her, moving one hand slowly up to caress her young face. So beautiful. She leaned into his touch, sighing contentedly.

"This is what I always wanted," she said, her voice dropping so low he wondered how he could hear it. "You and me. You to hold me like this. To tell me that you love me."

"But I do love you, Winry."

"Yeah, I know, Ed. I love you too."

With a sigh, she closed her eyes.

Ed urgently shook her. "No, Winry! Not yet, please not yet! I need you here with me! What about all the things we never did, Winry? What about all the wrenches you'll never throw? What about all the automail I'll need you to fix! What about… what about…" he swallowed. "What about the life we need to have together! I need to put the ring on your finger… I need to have you close to me at night… I love you, Winry! Please don't go, please don't leave me!"

"Sorry… Ed…" she whispered, eyes slipping shut. "I'm not… not strong enough. I need to sleep. I love you, Ed," she told him.

And then… everything stopped.

"No, Winry!" Ed screamed, shaking her limp body. "Please, please, please! Please wake up! Don't leave me, Winry! Don't leave me here all alone!"

How long Edward Elric stayed like that, crying, sobbing, with the body of the girl he loved cradled in his arms, he didn't know. What he did know was that, all too soon, he heard a voice, the voice of someone who might be his brother, but he just didn't know, and it was talking to him softly, and there was a cold hand on his shoulder. Then a tentative tug on the warm thing still in his arms, and he pulled her close, hissing, growling at the person who had tried to take her away from him. When the pulling became insistent, and the words became more urging, he let go, finally, and then fell to the ground, still spattered with _her_ blood, screaming and sobbing and crying, begging for her to come back to him.

But there are some things alchemy just can't do.

* * *

Ok, I'm feeling kinda angsty, so I... err... scribbled. I'm not gonna ask you if you like it, because it's just really really depressing! I don't know an awful lot of Fullmetal Alchemist, so I hope this is ok, and doesn't make any major plot errors... besides the outcome.

Libra xx


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